The present invention relates to methods of testing electronic components that are destined to be launched into space as part of suborbital, orbital, or remote spacecraft.
Spacecraft are becoming an ever increasing component of our lives, even if in an indirect way. In addition to the manned spacecraft that are sent to the International Space Station or beyond, there are many unmanned spacecraft that are launched every year including probes sent to deep outer space and distant planets, orbiting weather satellites, orbiting global positioning satellites, and sub-orbital intercontinental missiles that may or may not have a military purpose. Such spacecraft are controlled by complex electronic components that are designed and assembled on earth, but which must be capable of withstanding the extreme environmental conditions of space.
Manufacturers of electronic components for eventual use in spacecraft have developed various methods for simulating space-like conditions here on Earth, into which such electronic components may be inserted during testing. For example, some manufacturers use systems in which a space-like vacuum may be established in a chamber that may also be cooled to space-like temperatures. However, vacuum and thermal chambers typically are made of metal or other conductive substances, and are found to interfere with radio signals passing between the device under test and the reciprocal radio transmitter-receiver outside the chamber when testing the performance of a device with respect to transmission and reception of radio frequency signals via antennae.
There is a need in the art for a chamber suitable for testing electronic components in a space-like environment, that will not only simulate the temperature and pressure conditions of space, but that will permit substantially unimpeded radio communication with the device inside the chamber under test. The present invention addresses these and other needs.